Mysterious goings on at seattle grace
by xrainbowraex
Summary: a torchwood, house, greys anatomy crossover. set in seattle, the house team visit on a conference but turn up a week early and the torchwood team are on holiday whilst the hub is rebuilt. rated M for later chapters
1. Life Begins

**I don't own any of these characters, they are the works of whoever creates House, Torchwood and Grey's anatomy.**

**Ok, just so you know, background – house, season 2**

**Torchwood at the end of season 2**

**And Greys anatomy is sort of in the middle of season 3, after the episode where Cristina is picking the cake for the wedding, and the interns are all studying for their exams.**

When a day begins slowly at Seattle Grace Hospital, there's a sense of foreboding in the air. Interns lose their calm and focus. Attendings get edgy. Everyone knows that something is going to happen. It's just a matter of waiting, waiting for the pager to go off, or for the phone to start ringing.

Miranda Bailey called her interns in. "Karev, Stevens – You're with Dr. Sloane."

"Can't I go with Dr. Shepherd? Ava is getting her baby today." Asked Alex. Alex had become increasingly attached to a Jane Doe found in the ferry incident. He had pulled her out of the water, became her friend and her newborn daughter was just coming out of the intensive care unit. And he wanted to be there more than anything.

Also, with the connection between him and Addison firing more sparks by the minute, who knew what might happen in the on-call room if there happened to be a spare 20 minutes. On a quiet day like this, who knew.

Realising what it meant to Alex, Bailey let him go. "Fine Karev, if you want – O'Malley, you go with Stevens. Yang, Grey – you can help out in the clinic. It seems to be the busiest place in this damn hospital."

Izzy watched Meredith and Cristina walk to the clinic with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her heart beat faster as George touched her lightly on the shoulder. She shouldn't feel like this. Not after Callie had begged. Not after she still cried herself to sleep every night over her dead fiancé Denny.

Why George? Why Now?

She knew the answer to both of those questions. It was love. Neither of them could deny it, yet neither of them could bring themselves to admit it either. Could that one night, that both of them were trying so hard to regret, turn into the first of many? Izzy didn't want to be a mistress, or a lover. She just wanted to be his.

Meredith and Cristina walked into the clinic through the swing doors, and were greeted by the squalling of a young child and a cacophony of sneezes, groans and coughing fits.

"Great, just great," grumbled Cristina, "only two weeks until my wedding and I get exposed to all this."

"I thought you weren't the wedding sort of girl."

"It matters to Burke, so it matters to me."

"You just want to be in surgery, don't you?"

"Dammit, yes!"

"If you ladies aren't too busy…" the attending interrupted, handing each of them a pile of charts. "Bed 6 needs a physical, 15 needs a diagnosis, and try to discharge bed 3, Meredith, he's been here for two days now and I can't tell what's wrong with him, other than a throat infection."

Both interns rolled their eyes and set to work. Ten minutes later, a tall, lanky young man stumbled through the doors to the clinic. They clattered shut behind him, as he collapsed face first onto the floor. This unexpected arrival stunned the clinic into silence, apart from the child, who continued to cry.

Moments later, the team were galvanised into action, lead by Cristina, who rolled the man over. He had flecks of blood on his chin, haggard deep-set eyes and his breathing was accompanied by loud rasps.

"I need some help over here. We have a code orange, I repeat code orange!"

As the nurses hurried to get the equipment, Meredith helped Cristina to lift him onto the bed with Bailey and hissed into her ear, "What's code orange?"

"It means he could be contagious, so we need to take more care." Replied Cristina in a condescending tone as if she hadn't only learnt it last night when she was studying hospital protocol.

As the staff surrounded him, he began to cough and splutter, sending blood across the waiting room, onto doctors and patients alike. After the initial shock, the team reached a consensus that this man still needed their help. Bailey declared the clinic a quarantined area and closed off the area, explaining the situation to the other people in the room. She then paged Addison to get help.

The moment that Cristina tried to examine the man, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body was rocked with violent spasms.

"He's seizing! Crash cart over here!"

Cristina grabbed the paddles as Meredith opened the man's top using surgical scissors. She then held his body down as best she could whilst Cristina tried to shock his heart back into life.

"Charging…Clear! Charging… Clear!"

Again and again, she tried to resuscitate the man, but after 15 minutes of trying, they gave up.

Bailey resumed control over the situation. "Time of death, 10.52. Get cleaned up and see if you can find any ID. Then we'll get some blood tests done to see if this is contagious."

As they cleaned the blood from their hands, a curious dark green splotch formed under each droplet of blood that refused to come clean.

"Um, Bailey…?" asked Meredith.

Miranda turned to face the two women. She had received a face full of blood. She barely looked human.

Elsewhere in the hospital, Izzy was trying her best not to stare implicitly at George's behind, which was within arms reach. Was it her fault he turned up on her doorstep to get drunk after an argument with Callie? Why couldn't he see that she wasn't good for him. Sure, there was a lot of love between the two of them, but there was a lot of animosity and aggression too. If Callie got her way, and Izzy left George alone, then who knew what would happen.

Her train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt as Derek pulled the two of them aside. "Listen guys, I need you to do me a favour. Sloane can wait, this is more important."

The chief was due to be holding a conference with the top diagnosticians from all the other teaching hospitals in the country next week. However, the guys from Princeton-Plainsboro had got the dates wrong. Either that, or they really wanted to screw up Derek's life. To him it seemed that was everyone's prerogative recently.

He led the two of them over to a closed door. " Just behind this door is the finest diagnostician in the country – oh and his team. I want you to – give them the guided tour, keep them occupied. Make us look good – Ok?"

Izzy nodded and reached for the handle, just as George did. Their fingertips touched and their eyes met briefly before Izzy snatched her hand away. "Whatever you two have got going on," warned Derek, "Stop it now – I can't deal with you two as well." He stormed off down the corridor mumbling to himself.

Just as George opened the door slightly, a wooden cane reached through the gap and rapped him on the knuckles.

"Ow." Protested George, rather feebly, looking along the cane which was in the grasp of Dr. Gregory House, M.D.

"Are you the hired help?" House asked as he flipped the cap off an orange vial and swallowed one of the oval white vicodin tablets contained within.

"Don't mind him, he gets cranky in strange environments. I'm Lisa Cuddy, that oaf is Dr. House, next to him is Dr Wilson. The blonde Australian guy catching flies is Dr. Chase, who is mooning after Dr. Cameron. And the other guy is Dr. Foreman." She gestured to each of them in turn as they were introduced.

Izzy and George were prevented from returning the introductions by a rallying cry of protest.

"I was not _mooning_. I do not _moon._ Only idiot moon." Argued Chase.

"There is the flaw in your argument then. Cause you're obviously an idiot. Even the pretty blonde can see that." Pointed out House.

"If he was mooning, he would have been slapped by now. As he wasn't, can we leave it and see this place? Lead the way Dr…."

"O'Malley. But call me George." Filling in the gap left by Cameron. "And this is Dr. Stevens."

"Izzy. I'm Izzy."

The doctors left the conference room with Foreman taking up the rear, muttering to himself. "I used to be the black guy. Now I'm just "The other guy""

"Oh quit complaining," called back House, "You're not the only minority here." He turned to Izzy "Hi, I'm an adorable cripple."

"Hi, I'm not interested." Batted back Izzy.

"Oooh, a tough cookie, I like you."

"I wish you wouldn't…"

"The first stop on the tour is the free clinic, which is run by Dr. Bailey." Narrated George, as if he had been a tour guide all his life. He pushed against the swing doors, meeting resistance where he expected to find none and banged his head on the door.

Dazed, George slowly crumpled to the floor. Cuddy and Wilson were the first on the scene. As George slowly opened his eyes, he saw a dark haired, buxom woman looking at him in a concerned fashion.

"George are you alright? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. I'm Ok, I think… Thanks Callie. You said you'd always be there for me." Cuddy only had time to shoot a surprised glance at Wilson before George had pulled her down on top of him and started kissing her.

"Not even I succumbed that quickly to her feminine wiles…" muttered House to Cameron, who looked disgusted, as if House had personally insulted her. Not that it mattered, she still went weak-kneed every time he so much as glanced at her. But to act on it would be unprofessional, something Chase would be more likely to do. Maybe this trip would be good for the both of them. They both were eyeing up Dr. Stevens, she had noticed, and she felt strangely jealous. She was used to getting all the attention from the guys, and she kind of missed it. Not that she was interested in Chase. No way.

House tired of watching Cuddy move from surprised confusion, to full on make-out session, so he set about trying to prod open the door with his cane.

Wilson, still on the floor, protested as House moved to step forwards. "Hey, watch out! Some people are trying to help others down here. Not that you'd know what compassion was…" Ignoring him, House stepped forwards, treating Dr. Wilson to a one off, private showing of the Gregory House crotch show. Not that he actually minded all that much. Checking first to see that no-one was paying him any attention (they were all still astounded by George and Cuddy, or arguing amongst themselves), he inhaled the familiar deep musky scent. But he would never admit to anyone, least of all himself, that he had a problem.

Foreman asked Izzy, "Is there another way in?" as he tried to find a logical way to tackle the problem that wouldn't see them charged with Breaking and entering.

"Yeah, there is, but I'm just paging Dr Bailey. That door shouldn't be closed off." Said Izzy absentmindedly as she tried – and failed – to ignore George on the floor with Cuddy.

"If you're lucky, she won't be wearing any panties today." Commented House to George as he gave up on the door and hit him across the face with his cane.

"Oh my god." Said a stunned George who came to his senses and realised what he was doing, so promptly started apologising profusely to Cuddy.

"Something tells me that there's something on the other side of this door that people don't want us to see." Reasoned Chase.

"Exactly, a quarantine. And as these two have no idea what is going on, I guess no-one knows what it is yet. So I want to get in. Foreman, you're the one with the dubious background. Get to work on this door." Ordered House.

Foreman raised his eyes to the heavens, helped a dishevelled Cuddy to her feet and did as his boss asked. It wasn't even worth considering the ethics or retaliating anymore. Sometimes, he wondered if it even mattered that he existed, or if anyone would notice if he were gone.

Meanwhile, in the centre of Seattle, the remaining members of Torchwood three were on a holiday – of sorts. Whilst repairs were being made to the hub, Jack had decided they should give their international counterparts a visit. A change of scene might help them all get over the recent deaths of their friends and colleagues.

The three companions, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper and Cpt. Jack Harkness stared up the needle as they slowly descended on an invisible lift, the workings of which were not dissimilar to their corresponding lift in Cardiff.

They were met by an extraordinary sight. A black cavernous den, illuminated by spotlights, flashes of chrome and bold swipes of bright colour.

"Very swish." Commented Jack

"It looks a bit like my kitchen." Remarked Ianto bluntly. The transatlantic trip had done nothing to dampen his dry sense of humour. Gwen giggled and Jack looked at her fondly. It had been too long since he had heard Gwen laugh. Since any of them had laughed. The deaths of Tosh and Owen had hit them harder than they liked to admit, and only served as a painful reminder that all life is precious, a sentiment that had been forgotten recently by the team.

Gwen noticed Jack's gaze, and blushed, mistaking his intentions, which, for once, were honourable.

"I wonder where they are." Pondered Gwen, trying to hide her reddened cheeks. Ianto called them over and read the note he had found by the coffee machine that he had gone to acquaint himself with.

"hey y'all,

Been called out on business, you know how it is! Help yourself to anything that's in the den. If the red phone by the main console rings, it's urgent, so can you please deal with it? You have access to all our equipment, your DNA files are in our system and will let you use anything. Should be back in a day or so, hopefully.

Andy, Chuck, Sandy and Ellis."

"Hey, they left half a pizza – tuck in guys!" exclaimed Jack in delight. Gwen smirked in derision as the two boys proceeded to stuff their faces with "genuine American imitation cheese" topped pepperoni pizza. As she explored the base, she found photos of the team. A tear came to her eye as she remembered her team. She had been hired to keep them in touch with their emotions. Perversely it was this quality that was now stopping her from being able to do her job.

Whilst the Torchwood gang were settling in nicely, just four miles away, Alex Karev was cradling a week-old newborn in his arms. The mother's face lit up as he entered the room.

"Hey Ava, here you go" said Alex as he passed the baby girl over. Ava wasn't the mother's real name, but one that Alex had given her, so she at least had some identity.

Alex was followed in the room by Dr. Addison Shepherd, Derek's ex wife. She had secretly been eyeing up Karev as he tenderly held the baby.

'Ava was right' she thought 'He is the kind of guy who will stick around to play catch, not like Sloane.'

Her pager beeped, followed by Alex's, interrupting her thoughts. Hers read "Quarantined clinic – unknown threat, possibly paranormal. Contact authorities – Bailey."

As a contrast, Alex's was from Meredith. "In quarantine, turning green – seriously! Help!"

Reluctantly, the two of them left the heartwarming scene; Addison headed to call the police, Alex to the clinic. This was no time for the two of them to fool around. This hospital had been under quarantine before, just not in situations like this, and their friends needed help.

Alex met up with Izzy, George and their "Tour group" outside the internal entrance to the clinic, and explained the page he had got from Meredith. Introductions were made, and all they could do is wait and kick their heels as Foreman continued to steadily work on the door.

Elsewhere in the hospital, Dr. Sloane was wondering where the hell everybody was, where his interns were and why the hell didn't he have any coffee yet...

**Finally – first chapter done! Tell me what you think, and where you think it should head. I have a few vague ideas, but if yours are better…**

**Reviews happiness, so get reviewing!!**


	2. Red Lights and Unlikely Meetings

**Heya, i'm back from holiday now, the next chapter should be up pretty soon, i've written it, it just needs typing up. some gwen/cameron, jack/chase, house/jack, unrequited house/izzy and angsty janto in this chapter. i lose track of all the relationships after a while. Thanks to all the reviewers, more please, let me know how you think its going, they really help. oh and thanks to hannah for proof reading and support, the chapter after this one is dedicated to her, when it gets put up anyway!!**

**obv, all characters belong to their respective creators**

In the depths of the space needle, Ianto was tidying up after Jack, as usual. Clearing away coffee mugs and the pizza box, he took the opportunity to explore the data systems, and learn everything there was to know about his new temporary base. It was ingrained into him to learn everything he could about where he was; ever since he was a small boy, when he was the only survivor of a fire in the local village hall. If he had known exactly where to get out, exactly what to do, how many people were in there, he might not have been the only one.

As Tosh was now gone, it was now his job to monitor the rift, which stretched across the Atlantic and through Seattle as well as Cardiff, and to know how to access all of the different databases. It was a tough job and a hard burden to bear, on top of everything else. It was even harder than when Jack had inexplicably left. "But he came back." Ianto reminded himself.

Jack crept up behind Ianto and gave him a gentle kidney dig, just hard enough to provoke a response. Ianto rose to the bait and responded with an undignified squeal, leading to a wrestling match between the two of them on the floor.

They rolled over and over each other, Ianto with a secret grin on his face. This wasn't quite as secret as it seemed, as Jack could see through it as easily as glass.

It meant that Ianto loved the attention from Jack and was utterly devoted to him. It made Jack somehow sad to think about that, because although he loved Ianto in his own special way, he couldn't let go of his sudden fiery bursts of passion which were seemingly unspecific of race, gender, or even species.

But Ianto would always be the one he traipsed home to at night after doing his job, and saving the world. Sometimes they wouldn't even wait until they got home, choosing somewhere more illicit to hold their liaisons.

Interrupting their "playtime", the big red phone started to ring. Curiously, it sounded just like a traditional old English telephone, and the brash ringing echoed harshly throughout the den.

"Oh, I'll get it then shall I? Seeing as you two are so busy…" teased Gwen.

"I've told you once, I'll tell you again! He cheats. He always cheats!" complained Ianto, who didn't really mind. Jack could cheat as much as he liked as far as Ianto was concerned.

Gwen answered the phone. "Hello Torchwood. Gwen here."

The Seattle police department had called. There was a strange situation at Seattle Grace Hospital, and it was much more their department. Something about contagious diseases and green splotches.

"Let's roll." said Jack, and from the gleam in his eye, it was clear that he really loved his job, and would never want to do anything else.

They took some of the more familiar equipment to supplement their own supplies that they had brought from Cardiff, knowing from experience that, sometimes, alien devices were best left well alone.

Naturally, Jack was to be the driver. Not only was he the team leader, he was American, and he knew more about driving over here. Ianto, who was good behind the wheel, baulked at the idea of driving in America. He _liked _roundabouts. They made him happy.

Gwen, on the other hand, was all for driving. It was precisely this quality that led the boys to ban her from driving. She was not impressed. To emphasise this, she claimed shotgun, clambering into the surprisingly shiny, black 4X4.

Ianto climbed into the back, feeling like the renegade wild child from two very unlikely parents.

They screeched out of the underground parking lot at speed, causing Ianto to roll around uncontrollably on the back seat.

"Steady on! You just ran through a red light!" protested Ianto, who wasn't quite so sure about Jack's driving after all.

"Hey, one step at a time. Let me remember how to drive on the right hand side of the road first, and then I'll deal with intersections. Just lie back and enjoy the ride." Jack argued back, running yet another red light. Ianto, from his horizontal position in the back, pulled a face at Jack, raising his eyebrows and eliciting a smirk from Gwen.

This was quickly wiped off as they hared around another corner. "The sooner this journey is over, the better." said Gwen nervously. Ianto nodded in agreement, as they both hung on with white knuckles.

At their destination, the attending was trying her hardest to get Bailey, Cristina and Meredith to get checked out, but the only way they could function, the only way they could mentally cope with the situation, was to focus solely on their work. Oddly, their feet weren't heavy; they didn't feel weary or depressed. They seemed to be quicker, more agile and lighter as they hurried around the clinic, assessing patients and visitors, who were bemused and fearful, as they realised they were locked in.

In all the hustle and bustle, no-one noticed a small, bluish green lizard-like thing sneak from underneath the sheet covering the dead man. Almost seeming intelligent, it looked furtively from side to side as it scampered across the floor and through a small gap underneath a door, which led to a supply closet.

There, watched only by a myriad of arachnids, it closed it's quick, darting eyes and began to glow; pale blue streaks of light spearing through the darkness. Then, infinitely slowly, it began to grow.

Outside, Cristina Yang was awarded the unenviable job of drawing blood from the dead body. As the heart had stopped beating over twenty minutes ago, the blood no longer ran freely, so it literally had to be sucked from his veins like a vampire.

As she lifted the sheet, she thought she saw a metallic glint, but quickly dismissed it as a trick of the light. She drew out the blood out with a syringe, grimacing at the stiffness of his limbs, and quickly left the body.

Corpses creeped her out. She preferred her patients alive; it was ingrained into her as a doctor. She sealed up the bag containing the sample and sent it off to the path lab, carefully marking "contagious" on the label. As an afterthought, she added URGENT and underlined it twice. She wanted to be out of this hospital by midnight. She got cranky when she was kept up too long. As a doctor, she worked long hours anyway, but she had already been up for 15 hours, organising wedding details with Burke. She definitely needed some beauty sleep – it was tough work being a beautiful bride, she would be thankful when the wedding was over and she could settle down with her husband. She gave a wry smile at that thought. Whoever would have thought that she would settle down?!

In the corridor, House was being his usual fatuous self, and was talking to Alex about Izzy. Although he still claimed to be friends with her, Alex was only too willing to dish the dirt. Things had never been the same between them since they had broken up. Heartbreak really changes things between people.

House called it socialising. Cuddy called it fraternising with the enemy. Izzy, on the other hand, called it plain annoying.

"Does she make cute little squeaking noises during sex?" asked House excitedly.

"No, no, it's much louder than that. More passionate. Like this…" Alex told him, exaggerating a high pitched sexual groan.

Izzy echoed him with a despairing groan, as she tried not to rise to the bait. "How do you work with him?" she asked Cameron.

"Accept it." She said simply. "Learn to accept it. Then, you might even end up liking him anyway. Anyway, he only hits on people he knows he can't get. Something to do with self preservation. He told me about it once."

In the back of Izzy's mind, a plan started to form. The only way she could stop House was to beat him at his own game. She started to move towards him, towards the door, and as she walked past, she slowly dragged her fingers across his shoulders.

"Foreman, have you got it?" she asked innocuously.

"Actually… I have." He said as he rose from his knees. House's face lit up as he pushed his way past.

"Move out of the way, whore." He said lightly to Cuddy. She looked shocked, until George agreed with him, quietly, when she proceeded to look horrified.

"Of all of the things I am, one of the things I am definitely not is a whore."

Chase opened his mouth to disagree, but shut it firmly after a sharp glare from the newly defined whore. Cuddy could see that this was one battle she wasn't going to win at the moment, so she dropped it. There was plenty of time to get even with House later. He was going to get a lot more than he bargained for.

Outside, tyres squealed as Torchwood arrived in a cloud of rubber smoke. The smokers outside the hospital doors glared as their peace was disturbed by the gun wielding specialists who has absolutely no idea where they were going.

Ianto, using his head, motioned for the other two to come and help him decipher a map he had found. Jack came over, but Gwen strode confidently into the building. The two men shrugged and followed; she seemed to know where she was going. Jack spoke into his comm. as he tried to catch up. "Gwen, where are we going?"

They found her waiting at a fork in the corridor. "I'm following the signs for the clinic. Hospitals always have signs."

They arrived at a locked door, with a piece of paper sellotaped to the window reading "Clinic". Jack looked at Gwen with a grin. She nodded.

Jack took a long look at the door before aiming a kick at the lock on the door.

Bailey was stood talking to a patient in the corridor, when, after a loud bang, she was greeted by a cane wielding man to her left, and an official looking team to her right. As the team were holding guns and strange looking gadgets, logic dictated she should deal with them first.

"Can you put those guns away? This is a hospital. And anyway, who are you? I called for the police…"

"And the police called for us. I'm Captain Jack Harkness." He interrupted smoothly, tucking his gun into its holster. "This is Gwen and Ianto. We are Torchwood. We deal in the paranormal."

"Hang on a minute," House tapped his cane on Bailey's shoulder, "We were here first." Both parties tactfully said nothing about the large green patch on her face, which was glaring everyone in the face, and generally being very obvious.

Alex, Izzy and George slunk in behind House, trying not to be noticed by their attending. They failed. "Oh no you don't, I'll be having words with you in a minute. Now, whoever you are, you'll have to stay in here now, this is a quarantined area."

"Quarantining what? What are the symptoms?" demanded House.

"Now why would you want to know that?" asked a confused Bailey.

Chase slid smoothly to the front to introduce Dr. House, himself and the team. As he spoke, Jack ignored what he was saying and focused on his lips, which were pretty damned gorgeous. In fact, all of Dr. Chase was pretty damned gorgeous. Ianto noticed the look in Jack's eye and hoped fervently that Jack would still come back to him this time.

Chase was a little unnerved by the watching eyes of the captain, but subconsciously he licked his lips and fussed with his clothing. Those subtle signals were enough to tell Jack that he was interested. To unsettle Chase further, Jack gave him a flirty wink. That was enough for now. He would discover what Jack could really do later.

House, on the other hand, wasn't quite so interested in Izzy anymore. Indeed, who would be interested in her when someone infinitely more interesting had just burst into the room. He murmured to Wilson, who was just standing to his left, "I would, wouldn't you?"

"Gwen? No, she's not my type, I prefer blondes."

"Not her. Jack."

Wilson was visibly taken aback. He had had no idea. Well he had hoped, but had never suspected. But he had fallen in love with a different House. The House he knew. The one who wasn't gay.

"You're gay?!" he hissed back, a little too loudly.

"Shhh. Not so loud. I'm bi actually. Why else do you think Chase is on the team?"

Wilson, shocked, muttered something about helping out while he was here, and proceeded to go and have a hissy fit. House had no right to keep this from him, his best friend.

The others followed his example and set out to try and help. Gwen and Cameron headed towards two doctors who had just watched the past scene with their mouths wide open. "Can I just talk to you about what you saw?"

"Is it ok if I just check you over?"

They smiled at each other as they both asked at the same time. "There's no reason why we can't do both." Said Meredith, ever the pacifier. Cristina protested mildly, but soon gave up when she realised the situation was well and truly in hand, and they weren't going to take "no" for an answer.

They went into an unused clinic room and Gwen started off by asking the questions, whilst Cameron started the physicals, writing notes every so often when she found something unusual.

Just as Cristina reached the part where she took the man's blood, Cameron was kicked sharply in the kneecap when she tested Meredith's reflexes.

Gwen caught her as her leg gave way. Meredith began to apologise, but stopped as she read the notes Cameron had been taking, which had fallen from her hand as she fell.

"Very fast heartbeat, high blood pressure, scaly dark green skin, possible contusions, clear lungs and airways."

Meredith finished the list and wrote "Quick reflexes" in her neat cursive.

Cameron felt a jolt of electricity between her and Gwen as she allowed herself to be caught. Not the painful, shocking type of electricity, the tingling kind that leaves you with a warm sensation and a rush of goose bumps.

She limped over to a chair, supported by Gwen. "I'll go get some ice." Said Cristina, eager to get away.

"I'll help." Offered Meredith, somehow knowing that they needed to be left alone. Anyway, she needed to tell Cristina what Cameron had found.

"Thanks, I totally didn't expect that." Said Cameron, noticing for the first time the depths of Gwen's eyes, and the way her cashmere hair fell in soft waves about her shoulders.

"It's ok. It's a good thing I was here. Those two don't seem quite right."

"There's something weird going on here. This isn't any ordinary disease. Those two are superhuman." Agreed Cameron.

They returned with the ice, and Gwen held Cameron's hand as they bandaged her knee. Cameron almost forgot to wince.

Gwen knew that Cameron was someone she needed to meet. At certain points in your life, there are people on whom your destiny hinges. If she hadn't met Jack, she wouldn't be doing what she did. She believed this was another life changing person. That's why she followed her to Meredith and Cristina. She knew something had to happen between the two of them. It obviously helped that she was attracted by her smooth curves and killer legs.

Ianto decided to go and check the surveillance cameras. Any job so he could be on his own. He couldn't bear to watch Jack work his magic on someone else, someone new. It almost broke his heart every time, knowing that Jack wasn't staying faithful.

So he immersed himself in the work, and watched the scene unfold, frame by frame, through a curtain of tears.

Foreman was similarly miserable. He worked steadily through the people in the clinic, tending to the masses in a daze. No-one ever appreciated his efforts. But be damned if he was going to work any less hard because of it. He had worked so hard to become a doctor, relying on the kindness of universities to see past his criminal record to see his true potential as a doctor. He'd show them, he thought. They need him much more than they knew.

House had been finding out the symptoms, and had coerced Chase into checking out the corpse whilst he argued with Jack.

"It's obviously alien. Why else are they turning green?" said Jack.

"It could be a microbial disease. All the symptoms so far point to TB, my team are running some tests."

"Listen, I've been doing this a lot longer than you. Its aliens. It's always aliens."

"I'll prove you wrong. Twenty bucks says it's a disease."

"Deal." Said Jack as they shook hands. House walked away shaking his head. "Why do the cute ones have to be so dumb?" he asked himself.


	3. Awakening the Lizard Within

This is Hannah's chapter, even if there isn't any Janto in it…

**This is Hannah's chapter, even if there isn't any Janto in it….**

**I refuse to be held responsible for the actions of any of these characters. I don't choose what they do, I just put into words what happens in my head. So therefore, there is a bit of a warning, for those who don't appreciate slash, or my Jack/Chase pairing, to avoid the end of this chapter. On the plus side, I am advocating safe sex :P**

**Thanks to everyone who is still bearing with me, this chapter has been written for a few weeks now, but it's taken this long for me to actually get around to typing it up. It's a bit of a task!! And also, my internet has been down ****(thank you British Telecom ¬¬) ****and for **_**some**_** reason the college techies have banned this website, so I can't upload it there either. But it's nice to see it's being read, especially in places like Malaysia and Belgium ******

**As always, credit for the characters goes to their creators…**

Wilson was still quietly shocked at House's easy admission of liking men. He though he knew everything there was to know about him. People often remarked on how close they were, almost like a couple. He always smiled when he heard that. He sometimes daydreamed about them together. It wasn't such a big leap from them sharing a house together to adopting a child. Was it?

He'd only ever told House once how he felt. They had both been drinking together at home about a month ago. House had put his head on Wilson's shoulder, drifting between sleep and wakefulness. Wilson said "I love you, you know. Properly. Not like friends. I. Love. You." And then the both of them were asleep.

He'd never known if House had heard or not. He'd never acted as if anything had changed. But now it had. Why did it have to be different now?

Or was he different at all? The thought dawned on Wilson as he watched House with Jack. The only thing that was different was that now he had a chance. And that could only be good. He smiled and went about his work with a renewed vigour, trying to find out as much about this mystery disease as he could.

Miranda Bailey was on the warpath. After cornering George, Alex and Izzy and wringing their stories out of them, she had given them a lecture on why they shouldn't break into quarantined areas, and why they shouldn't be heroes. She was now looking for Meredith, who had squealed to Alex. "Karev, you shouldn't even be here…" She snarled.

George sent a pager to Meredith, "HIDE, Bailey's on the warpath!"

Meredith just caught sight of Bailey's turned back as she talked to Cuddy. Thinking quickly, she used the old failsafe and dived into the supply closet. For many months it had been her refuge for when she didn't want to face the world.

She didn't expect what she found there. As the door swung to a close with a 'click', she somehow wasn't herself anymore. It was if she was under hypnosis. The 'lizard', now about a foot high, and resting on its hind legs, had lured her into a trance.

Meredith's eyes closed and her legs folded beneath her. Her arms raised, she looked like a pagan witch. Then, she changed to look like nothing of this earth. Her eyes opened; they were opaque and glowed a watery blue. Shafts of the same blue light shot out like spears from all over her body. Slowly, oh so slowly, she was morphing. The green-ness was spreading. She had awakened the lizard within.

House had made a breakthrough. Or at least he thought he had. He had found a patient waiting in the clinic for treatment after numerous blood tests and biopsies. "It's lupus." He announced with a flourish, "Get her started on prednisolone. If she responds to the treatment, we can let the others go. It ties in with the dead guy. He had lung problems and brain problems. Lupus fits."

"It's not lupus." Said Foreman, "Well, she might have lupus," he amended, "But lupus isn't contagious. She didn't get it from him."

House looked away. He knew Foreman was right. What kind of place was this anyway? It didn't even have a whiteboard.

He took a pen from his jacket pocket and proceeded to deface the clinic wall. "It's green, but it'll have to do." He commented as he wrote up the symptoms.

Green scaly skin

Coughing blood

Seizure

Heart failure

He sat down on a chair, and listened to his ipod whilst he waited for his team to report. He received more than a few odd looks as he indulged in some air guitar using his cane. He couldn't help it – it was a classic, stairway to heaven.

The guitar solo was rudely interrupted by Jack, but for once, House didn't actually care. Jack was always going to be a welcome distraction. Led Zep could wait. Jack sat down beside House and disconnected his headphones. "Nothing yet. But pretty little list you have there. Shame it won't be any use."

"Ah, but remember the story of the crippled man who was right, and the cocky good looking man who built his house under a tree."

"You're talking a load of bullshit." Laughed Jack.

"Sorry, I meant to talk a load of crap. My mistake." House gave a sardonic grin, but was cursing on the inside. That was no way to win a person over. Depressed, he withdrew, plugging in his headphones. He could wait. House was very good at waiting.

Chase scowled. Alone with a dead body and a scalpel. Again. As the surgeon, he always got the messy, dirty work. But working with House was always going to be dirty. He'd sifted through rubbish, broken into homes and smudged several of his moral values. But he still worked for him, because he was the best. And it meant he got to come to places like this, and meet people like Jack.

Jack intrigued Chase. As a man, Chase's mind was never far from sex. Never before gay sex though. All he knew was one thing; if Jack offered, he wouldn't say no. And that would be another messy dirt thing he was going to do whilst he was in Seattle.

Setting to work he made an incision down the chest. The scalpel refused to go deeper than skin level. He went through three scalpels before cutting away the top layer. What lay beneath astounded him. He could see thousands of tiny overlapping metal scales, unscathed by the scalpel. They had an odd dark green sheen to them, similar to the colour of Bailey's splotches. He didn't recognise it as any material he had seen before.

Shaken, he put down his tools, covered the body and left the room to tell House and Jack. They both needed to know about this. This wasn't human. If anything, it was a robot.

Izzy, released from the clutches of Bailey, set to work implementing her plan. It was simple – flirt with House to stop him flirting with her. She found him pacing up and down in front of the "board." Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself before walking past and pinching his bottom. She counted to three, turned to make sure he saw her, pouted and then turned the corner before jumping up and down like an excited teenager.

"You're going to have to give me some of whatever you've had, or tell me what's going on." Said Cristina suspiciously. Izzy explained her problem with House.

"So Mcflirty needs to be taken down a peg…" She said mischievously, "I'm in." This was going to be fun.

Meanwhile, back in the corridor, House was confused. "Did she just..?" He asked Jack, who nodded and said "Yep. She did."

"Hmmm…" pondered House. He hadn't really considered Izzy since Jack had come onto the scene, but if she was game…

Gwen had found Cameron some crutches from somewhere and they chatted and told each other about themselves as they looked for their bosses to report to. Cameron made the first leap. "Are you, with anyone?" she asked. Gwen waited only a heartbeat before lying. Rhys would understand. In fact, he'd probably be in favour of it. And it wasn't as if she was going to keep seeing her after they returned home, was it?

"No, I'm single."

"Um, sorry if I've read this the wrong way, but after all this is over, do you want to go and catch a drink, or go out to dinner or something?" stammered Cameron.

"I'd like that. Just to let you know, I've never done anything like… this… before."

"Me neither."

Gwen flashed one of her rare smiles at Cameron, and everything seemed to be right in the world.

House rained on their parade a little bit by snapping "What are you so happy about? Did the nice welsh lady give you a lollipop when she fixed your leg? Copycat… I always knew you liked me; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." He snatched the notes from Cameron and added 'Superhuman' to the list.

Gwen rolled her eyes. Jack told her "Ignore him" as she gave her report. It was pretty much what he knew already, but he was interested in the photograph of the green splotches on her camera phone. She had taken them in the course of the investigation, so they could keep a track on them.

Cameron's leg was hurting, so she hit House on the arm with her crutch, stopping any form of protest by saying "You do it all the time with your cane," and made him move along the bench. Gwen made a small wave to Cameron before moving on to investigate more eyewitnesses whilst Cameron and House compared dodgy legs.

Chase chose that moment to tell House and Jack about the 'non-human' corpse. Jack simply said "Ha!" and pushed Chase back towards the room. House could wait. He knew what a dead body looked like. On the way, Jack's hand slipped from the small of Chase's back onto his firm buttocks.

"Well isn't this nice…" said Chase with some surprise, who followed his immediate instincts and pulled Jack into the nearest empty room, which appeared to be a supply closet.

This particular cupboard was becoming a hotspot for the unexpected. Meredith was becoming a conduit for the alien forces. Chase was terrified and tried to get out, but Jack was in the way. "This supply cupboard isn't made for four" joked Chase nervously.

Jack was nonplussed about the situation. He knew what he was dealing with now. He prodded Meredith with his toe. When she didn't move, he relaxed and said "Ok, we have some time. We can do _this _somewhere else, **and **have time to save the world afterwards. I don't know what you think, but this hard-on's too good to waste. And this," he indicated the eerie scene before them, "proves I'm right, so House owes me 20 bucks."

They left the room, much to Chase's relief, and Jack sealed it off using one of the gadgets strapped to his 'utility belt'. Then the two men went searching for an empty room. Adrenaline coursed through Chase's veins. He had never had this thrill before, of doing something he never thought he could, or would. Jack put it down to his irresistible charm, but he was excited too. Anyone new was always exciting, but he had to go back to Ianto at the end of the day, for reasons only known to himself.

Ianto, meanwhile, had been poring over the tape for some time, when Foreman came in to offer some help. "Can I lend a hand? Two sets of eyes are better than one, and you look like you could use a break."

Ianto nodded wearily. "You look as bad as I feel," commented Foreman, "Been through rough times recently?" Ianto felt a longing to tell him everything, from Owen and Tosh dying, to Jack's infidelity. But he couldn't could he? Then he remembered the retcon in his top pocket. It _would_ help to tell someone. And afterwards, he would never know…

Thinking guiltily of Suzy, Ianto began. Over a few cups of coffee, they both confided in each other, and a trust was formed; a bond of misery and misfortune.

Just as Foreman finished his story (and both of them had sworn each other to secrecy) he caught something out of the corner of his eye on the video tape, well after the incident. There was a small movement of blue, about 10cm long, running across the floor. They played the tape back, slowly, and found it had come from the man. Foreman decided to bypass everything that logic was telling him about aliens.

In jubilation they high fived each other, and, feeling much better about themselves, left to tell Jack. As the door swung shut behind them, Ianto mentally cursed as he realised he had forgotten to retcon Foreman. Ah well, it could wait. As long as it was done soon.

Cristina went to collect the results from the blood sample. She hoped desperately that they showed nothing serious. She didn't even want to work in the clinic today. She just wanted to _cut_ something. At least she was in this with her person.

When she collected the sample, she didn't find what she had expected. Instead of the results, there was just a message from the phlebotomist in the comments, "Ha ha, very funny. Send us real blood next time."

Mystified, she took the print out to Bailey, who rang up the tests department. They confirmed it definitely wasn't blood. If anything, it was brake fluid, and they didn't want to know why they knew that. Suffice to say that the person who ran the tests was an ex convict.

When House heard this news, he took it all in his stride. Now, according to the board (which Bailey was not pleased about) he had to find a disease that turned people into superhuman robots and converted their blood into brake fluid.

"Damn that Jack," he thought. Maybe it wasn't a disease after all. But it couldn't be aliens, because logically, they don't exist… Do they?

Chase and Jack had finally found an empty room. This one even had a bed in it. Chase was well chuffed. He knew just how hard it was to find an empty bed in a hospital. Jack made sure they wouldn't be disturbed, and they plunged into the act with reckless abandon.

Jack was the more ready of the two of them and he always followed the saying "It's better to give than to receive" so he told Chase to bend over the bed.

Quivering from a mixture of suspense and nerves, Chase obeyed, firstly removing the lower half of his suit and kicking his shoes into the corner.

Jack teasingly ran his tongue along the upper rim of Chase's pristine white boxers. He blew lightly on the wetness, making Chase shiver in anticipation. Jack slipped the underwear down Chase's legs until they reached his ankles. He had already de-robed and his naked buttocks peeked through the slit of his infamous coat.

"I want you to enjoy this," whispered Jack, "let me have my way with you." Chase just nodded and gripped the bed sheets firmly. Jack licked his fingers and began to gently slide them back and forth. With his other hand, he loosely grasped Chase's crowning glory and began to rhythmically surge backwards and forwards.

When Chase began to emit deep, manly groans, Jack slipped a condom on and eased himself in. Slowly at first, he held Chase's hips and pulsed into him, rocking his pelvis back and forth.

As Jack sped up, thrusting ever stronger, Chase felt shuddering waves of ecstasy erupt through his body. His loins were on fire, burning with lust and passion. During his climax, he suddenly had an epiphany. He had never felt this way with any woman before because he was gay.

Jack took a little longer to reach his peak, but when he was spent, he withdrew breathing heavily. Chase turned around and said simply "Thank you" with a look of sincerity that genuinely touched Jack. Looking back at the ruffled bed and his tousled reflection, Chase flushed red and shyly suggested that they tidied up a little before dealing with whatever it was in the closet.

Ianto paced up and down the corridors of the clinic looking for Jack. No-one had seen him, or Chase, for at least ten minutes. Ianto had sweaty palms and his brow was wrinkled into deep furrows. Foreman, noticing his friend's tenseness, put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "It'll be alright. I'm sure it's strictly business."

Just then, Jack and Chase emerged from a room, looking distinctly dishevelled. Ianto felt Jack's apologising look as if it were a knife wound. He looked directly at Jack and told him what they had found, as if to say "I thought you knew better. I thought you had some restraint."

It did little to comfort Ianto when he found out that Jack already knew. The lizard-like creature was actually a Vakros, a member of the nomadic race that roamed the galaxy. They were well established due to their advanced nano-robotics that allowed them to blend into any environment easily. They were also famed for their telepathy fields, and Jack was worried that he had caught one of them signalling to their base. Meredith had just been caught in the flow.

They rounded up the rest of the gang, Ianto looking noticeably dejected, and went to confront and capture the Vakros. Jack led them up to the cupboard, unlocked the door with his device, and moved to capture the Vakros. Which wasn't there.

Jack only succeeded in tripping over Meredith, who woke up a little bit dazed to find a handsome man in her lap. Although she had often wished to find a handsome man like this, she didn't appreciate being woken up in that manner.

"Get off me" she complained irritably, before shrinking as she saw Bailey craning to see over Gwen's shoulder. She decided it was best to stay quiet from then on. She extricated herself from the room, everybody staring at her silently.

"What, have I got something on my face?" she asked. George broke the silence by suggesting that she went to look in a mirror. Obligingly, she gasped to find her eyes were unmistakeably different. They were almond shaped and an opaque turquoise blue. She was changing.


End file.
